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9th grade · English Language Arts · Unit 9 of 12

Form & Composing

Pick the right form for your audience and shape a clear text.

What your child practices

Practices choosing a form for purpose and audience, tone, organization, transitions, text features and design choices when composing and publishing.

Alaska content standards learning standard: W.9-10.4; L.9-10.3 · choosing a form and tone for the audience

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Choose a form for your purpose and audience: a how-to guide explains steps, a letter speaks to one reader.
  2. When you revise, improve ideas, organization and wording. Put the strongest point first in persuasive writing.
  3. Use transitions, text features and design to make the text clear.

Example: Which form best explains the steps for building a bird feeder: a poem, a how-to guide or a review? The goal is to explain steps in order. A how-to guide is made for that. Answer: a how-to guide

Form & Composing in Alaska

In the Alaska content standards, this is unit 9 of 12 in 9th grade English Language Arts, after Summarizing Texts and before Research & Credibility.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Alaska Department of Education and Early Development

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Reorganizing paragraphs so the strongest point comes first in a persuasive text is part of…

    • brainstorming
    • proofreading
    • re-evaluating the organization

  2. Question 2

    When writing for a formal audience such as a principal, you should use…

    • slang and text-message spellings
    • polite, precise language
    • only pictures

  3. Question 3

    Publishing a text means…

    • starting a draft
    • sharing a final version with an audience
    • taking notes

  4. Question 4

    Which feature helps a reader find information quickly in a long report?

    • headings
    • a bigger font on every page
    • a longer title

  5. Question 5

    When writing a research report, you should include…

    • an introduction, body paragraphs and a conclusion
    • only a title
    • only a conclusion

  6. Question 6

    Which transition word shows contrast?

    • therefore
    • also
    • however

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